Sijia_Gu_desma9_midterm Fall2013 UCLA

1. DESMA 9
Art + Science + Technology
Fall 2013
Professor Victoria Vesna
Section [1C]
Title:
[Big Data & Chinese Poetry]
Name: [Sijia Gu]

2. ABSTRACT
[Since I was born in Mainland China, I was taught a lot of
ancient Chinese poetries in school. Ancient Chinese poetries
were unlike any other style of poetries existed; they were
strictly patterned in terms of number of words (Chinese
characters) and number of sentences. Only a few words can
describe a whole image of beautiful landscape or a lonely
mood. I was astonished how amazing it was, but I could
never achieve that level of literary accomplishment. The idea
of combining math and poetry come to my mind. By using
data analysis, we can develop a program to help people
write poems.]

3. CONCEPT / TOPIC
[There are so many times I can not find any words proper to express my
feelings, when I impressed by the beauty of nature. I hope I can write
down some great poems describing such a scenery right away. Then I
want to design a program that contains the words from a mass ancient
poetry data base. Whenever you want to write some poems, you can
search for the words you think which can best express your feelings. My
program can help people come up with beautiful words that they may
never known before, and it can also automatically show people the
specification of different poetry types. Then, writing a poem will be as
easy as filling in the blanks.]

4. CONTEXT & PRECEDENTS
[Yixuan, a Chinese college student, has done some reserches in this
direction. He collected the frequencies of all the words in Quan SongCi (The Complete Collection of Song Period Ci Poetry). By ranking all
the words' frequencies, he marked each word a code. In this way, you
can write a Ci peom simply. Write down a string of numbers, then
replacing the numbers by words assigned to them. ]

5. PROJECT PROPOSAL
[In my program, I will not only collect data from Song Dynasty Ci poems, but
also other dynasties' poems. Then I will attach every word several tags. Tags
are the essence of this program. Tags can be classified into five main
categories: frequency, part of speech, positive or negative and dynasty (when it
used most often. Since Chinese poems created in different periods have
completely various styles.)]

6. Project Proposal (cont.)
[Some tags can be further divided into sub-categories. Since some Chinese
characters have various meanings at different situations. Therefore, subcategory is very necessary. For example, if a word is positive. We can find
out which subtitle it fells into, such as pleasure, excitement , pride,
satisfaction, and etc. A noun can be landscape, trees, animals or objects. In
this case, you can just select the tags you want, and then simply pick the
words you like. It works like a big data structure.]

7. Project Proposal (cont.)
[When you begin to write your own poem, the first thing you need to do
is selecting one style of your creation; then you will get a format, telling
you how many words (Chinese characters) in each sentence. All you
need to do then, is to look up the data base by searching tags you
want, and pick those words you like. You may feel like you were Su
Shi, Xin Qiji and many other great poets, writing poems to record your
feelings and emotions.]

8. Conclusion
[All above show us a great application of cooperation between big data and
Chinese poetry. In other words, that is a beautiful conjoint-creation based on
the new technology and arts. Under the help of techs, arts have a more
energetic lineament. Meantime, arts make techs more extensive and
profound. With this app in your phone, you can write a poem recording your
emotion anywhere, and share with your friends. It is not only poems, it carries
your memories. Another important thing is your literary achievement steadily
improved after a long time of use. Meanwhile, new generations will learn
Chinese culture from it as well.]

9. References
[1
Lin, Yutang. The Gay Genius: The Life and Times of Su Tungpo. J. Day Co.,
1947.
2 Owen, Stephen. "Forward to the 1987 Edition." The Book of Songs: The
Ancient Chinese Classic of Poetry. Trans. Arthur Waley. NY: Grove Press, 1987.
3 Deng, Guangming . Biography of Xin Qiji (辛弃疾传) & Chronicle of Xin Qiji’s
Life (辛稼轩年谱) (in Chinese). Shanghai: Sdx Joint Publishing Company, 2007.]

10. Bibliography / Links
[Dr. Wheeler, “Traits of Classical Chinese poetry” , Carson Newman College,. 1998. Web. 2 November 2013
< http://web.cn.edu/KWHEELER/chinese_poetry.html >
Miwerty, “Song-Ci”, Baidu baike, 2003. Web. 2 November 2013
< http://baike.baidu.com/link?url=pgCRO0eoTc65sxwuBtGr4KhqTC_7OlMPHmH5UfshDeOIayjz-822o1UmihVqQn9U >
“Su Shi”, Wikipedia, 2010. Web. 2 November 2013 < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Su_Shi>
Murck, Alfreda . Poetry and Painting in Song China: The Subtle Art of Dissent. Cambridge (Massachusetts) and London:
Harvard University Asia Center for the Harvard-Yenching Institute 2000 Print.
“Xin Qiji”, Wikipedia, 2011. Web. 2 November 2013< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xin_Qiji >
Liu, Zhongmei, Ed. Xin Qiji. Beijing: Wuzhou Chuanbo Chubenshe, 2005 Print.
Gong Zizhen, “Ji Hai Za Shi” , Baidu baike, 2003. Web. 2 November 2013
< http://baike.baidu.com/link?url=SifEr03SOOlbv7M3laMFQaWERdHvj3q1lQ3EzKviSlgE-HY_j8ul3BzLArjLrCYr >
Xi Hai, “ Write a poem in a second”, Renren Blog 2011. Web .2 November 2013
< http://blog.renren.com/blog/260167012/786353694 > ]